Happy New Year, everyone!
I am pleased to report that after the miserable reading years of 2009 and 2010, when I read only 23 and 24 books respectively, I came back strong to finish with 36 books for 2011. Hooray, go me. But really, it's mostly about life (which I suppose you can say for most things) - I moved to an non-English speaking country in the middle of this year and as a result, I read an awful lot of books as I was getting settled. I find this is always the case when I am far from home; in fact, I started this list the year that I was studying abroad in South America.
Looking back, the best books I read in 2011 were probably Daphne Kalotay's Russian Winter; Michelle Moran's Madame Tussaud, Ann Brashares' Sisterhood Everlasting; and Ann Patchett's State of Wonder. Interestingly, all books by women, all books featuring women, and three out of four set in a distinctly different time or place. And, perhaps most importantly, all four of these books have stayed with me in some way; while there were a number of other books this year that I quite enjoyed, I can't say I've ever really thought of them again.
As for the books I most disliked? Aside from the obvious - Francine Pascal's horrendous Sweet Valley Confidential - I'd have to go with Veronica Roth's Divergent; Paula McLain's The Paris Wife; Vendela Vida's The Lovers; Rhoda Janzen's Mennonite in a Little Black Dress; and Caitlin Kelly's Malled. While I also read a number of blah books this year (and admittedly, I am picky as hell - the longer I work as an editor, the worse it gets), these ones took the cake because, aside from Divergent, they all had pretensions of being some kind of great work, which I didn't think they lived up to. These were all books that I actively disliked and seriously considered stopping reading in the middle.
But I hate stopping in the middle. It's a little silly since life is short and you can only read so many books, and admittedly, it's partially about the list. (I mean, if I only read half of a bunch of books, I'll never make it to 30). That said, there are a few books that I quit in the middle this year. And funny enough, I didn't hate any of them - in the case of Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife (which I know was nominated everywhere for best book of the year), Michelle Moran's Cleopatra's Daughter, and Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, they just failed to fully grab my attention. With David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, I meant to go back and check it out from the library again, but it just never happened. It was good but wasn't good enough. And then, at the end of the year, I started War and Peace, which I quite liked though for no discernable reason, but found I didn't have the time to read it right now.
The reason I quit War and Peace is actually because I just started a new, time-consuming job. I could have kept going but it probably would have taken me six months to read it at the pace I was going. So it's put-off for another time. Same thing happened some years ago with The Brothers Karamazov, alas.
Anyway, next post...looking ahead to 2012!
